[NTO]

Originally Posted by kalpak2021

Hey guys,

I am now planning to get him a used Alto or something and bring back the Vento back home and restore it.

I am looking for a reliable FNG (preferably in the north Bangalore) who can check the condition of the car/engine. I have never gotten a second opinion on the rebuild so I would look for someone who has worked on VWs previously. Secondly, while at it I would like to get the car repainted completely.

Regards,
Kalpak Khemka

Hello Mr. Khemka,

My car has been maintained by Jaiprakash after Abra Motors, Volkswagen Chennai shut shops. He is an expert in German diesels and especially the ones from the VAG stable. He is in Chennai but, I would strongly recommend you to bring your car to Chennai, restore it completely and go back revving the 1.6 TDI out. Regarding body shops, there are many good ones and if you plan to come to Chennai, I can help you out personally, for, we share a common love towards VAG TDI. Pls DM me.

[kalpak2021]

Originally Posted by NTO

Hello Mr. Khemka,

My car has been maintained by Jaiprakash after Abra Motors, Volkswagen Chennai shut shops. He is an expert in German diesels and especially the ones from the VAG stable. He is in Chennai but, I would strongly recommend you to bring your car to Chennai, restore it completely and go back revving the 1.6 TDI out. Regarding body shops, there are many good ones and if you plan to come to Chennai, I can help you out personally, for, we share a common love towards VAG TDI. Pls DM me.

Thank you for a quick response NTO. Will sure leave you a message in the DMs. Its in human nature to love high maintenance things/people.

Nonetheless, currently the car is in one of my trusted garages in Bangalore by the name of AM Motors in Hesaraghatta. It is owned by Mukund and his partner/compatriot Manjunath. I know Mukund from the early days of my ownership, he was a mechanic at the ASS (Palace Cross VW - Hesaraghatta workshop). His charges are certainly higher than the other FNGs but I have been pretty convinced with his workmanship.

Presently the car has been left with him for a persistence oil leakage problem, Mukund himself checked the issues 3 times and found the cause to be a worn camshaft oil seal all the three times. After multiple oil seal replacements, he suspected a bent camshaft to be the culprit, due to which the oil seal was wearing off (the wobble causes the oil seal go kaput). I personally visited the lathe workshop with him to get the camshaft inspected and it was immediately apparent that the camshaft was wobbling on the lathe. I am supposed to get the car back tomorrow and will possibly take it out for a long spin.

Will be keeping the thread updated with any further developments.

[NTO]

8.5 years and 85K kms with our Vento

Appreciation post for Ramani Volkswagen, Hosur.

We decided to retain our Vento for a couple of more years and hence in the general annual service, got the clutch replaced at German Tech, Chennai. There was no problem with the clutch per se but, it was getting hard to drive it in heavy traffic. Clutch parts plus labour costed us Rs. 16,000 and general service was another 12,000.

All set and the car was good to go for another one year. Earlier we used to get the car serviced at 15,000 km service interval but now, the running has reduced considerably and the service intervals are changed to one year once.

During the August 15th long weekend, we had some personal work in Bangalore and My dad and I decided to travel in our Vento to enjoy the new clutch. 130 kms from home, we stopped for breakfast at Alankar, Ratnagiri. So far, uneventful journey. Once we started after breakfast, the car started to limp and refused to go beyond 2K rpm. Immediately, I brought the car to a halt and tried the good old Indian Jugaad, Switch it off for a while and switch it on. The coil symbol and CEL were still blinking and the car continued to limp. I then stopped the car, called our magic mechanic, Jai Prakash for advice. He said there were two possibilities, either a rat bite to some wire or a possible injector failure. He asked us to drive the car till the point where there are no judders felt to avoid other impacts like engine bed damage etc. and reach the nearest VW service centre for help.



Called VW vellore, the nearest on google map. No response but still drove down to the location indicated on the map. Classic google map fiasco and the map lead us to the middle of nowhere. Frustrated, I then called Aswin (ICD customs) a friend of mine for help. He asked me to drive down to VW Hosur and shared the contact of Mr. Parthiban.

The first ray of hope. Mr. Parthiban spoke to us in a very reassuring tone and promised to get our issue fixed as soon as possible. He also said that he will ensure part availability of injector if it was needed. He asked us to drive down to Hosur and advised us to maintain speeds until which the car is running smoothly. With all the confidence that we got from Jai Prakash, Aswin and Parthiban, we drove down to VW Hosur. Mr. Srinivasan, called us enroute. He is a senior service advisor in VW Hosur and he was already aware of the problem. He too advised us to drive slowly and reach the service centre. Mr. Parthiban had already briefed him as Parthiban was not available in Hosur. He was at a meeting in Salem.

We reached the service centre 170 km away in the next 3 hours at around 2 PM. Our car was immediately taken to work, issue identified as injector failure, part was replaced and we were out of the service centre in the next one hour.

Few pictures from the service centre.









Waiting to be delivered


With the new Virtus




Such a great overall experience it was with Ramani Volkswagen, Hosur. Wish we had a service centre like this in Chennai. Abra was almost similar with experience but they shut shops and forced us to go towards the FNG route for service needs of our Vento. No regrets but, such ASS experience would've made the brand VW even bigger in India.

All that said, we see significant fuel efficiency gains with the new clutch and injector and Vento still remains to be the most fuel efficient car in our house. The car feels brand new even after 8 years, no rattles, no extra sound whatsoever.

[dsr_rpm]

Ramani VW service is generally good and reliable. They seam to retain the technicians and this results in knowledgeable service personal.

Injector failure seems to be common for VW diesel specifically for the 1.6L engines. I have replaced three of the injector failure in my 150000km run. It all started after the 80k run. First one was replaced without any cost but was charged for the second and third.

[cryptarchy]

A reliable VW service center is hard to find. On a similar note, does anyone here know about a reliable service center in Delhi area?

[Maky]

It was very reassuring for me to hear your positive 'middle of nowhere' breakdown experience from VW, especially given I am strongly considering a VAG group(Octavia) car.
I just hope they do better at standardising such after-sales support across all dealerships/service centers, as some have mentioned it's still a bit iffy, varying from place to place. I think primarily an issue with the older dealers.

[Sahil00090]

Originally Posted by cryptarchy

A reliable VW service center is hard to find. On a similar note, does anyone here know about a reliable service center in Delhi area?

Have you tried VW Mathura road, behind Mercedes Benz showroom?

They have been pretty helpful to me.

[konguraajaa]

I too had a similar experience with VW Ramani, Madurai. It was around 2018, My Polo refused to cross 60kmph in the middle of the highway around 1AM due to failure in turbo hose.

I was able to contact the SA and got it fixed, the morning without any hassles. The best part is they were able to identify the problem and ensured the parts availability before I arrived there.

Only the sales experience with Ramani is not good IMO, they do pretty well in their After sales.